blogcutter (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
blogcutter) wrote2014-04-17 12:52 am
blogcutter) wrote2014-04-17 12:52 am
Remembering "Big Garbage Day"
Back in the sixties (and probably long before), before blue boxes and black boxes and green bins, I remember one day every spring was always Big Garbage Day. That may not have been its official name, but it's how I remember it being referred to around our place. It was the one day every spring that you could put out furniture, appliances and anything else that didn't fit in a garbage bin or bag.
The "day" part was a misnomer too. While there may have been a specific day designated for the stuff to be put out there, it was, to the best of my recollection, often a few weeks before it was actually picked up. A veritable paradise for kids going to and from school (in those days, of course, we all walked, at least to elementary school) who could explore other people's junk and play around in the piles of old furniture.
Modern-day "helicopter parents" would of course be shocked and appalled. What sort of nasty diseases could their kids pick up from all those flea-bitten, moth-eaten old couches and armchairs? How many kids suffocated after climbing into discarded refrigerators or freezer before you were required to remove the door? And wouldn't our children all get tetanus from stepping on rusty nails?
But maybe that was just the beginning of separating our garbage just like we do today, only nowadays it's all so much more complicated. And nowadays, despite ever more containers of ever more hues, there seem to be ever more items that you CAN'T put out for curb side pickup even once or twice a year.
The "day" part was a misnomer too. While there may have been a specific day designated for the stuff to be put out there, it was, to the best of my recollection, often a few weeks before it was actually picked up. A veritable paradise for kids going to and from school (in those days, of course, we all walked, at least to elementary school) who could explore other people's junk and play around in the piles of old furniture.
Modern-day "helicopter parents" would of course be shocked and appalled. What sort of nasty diseases could their kids pick up from all those flea-bitten, moth-eaten old couches and armchairs? How many kids suffocated after climbing into discarded refrigerators or freezer before you were required to remove the door? And wouldn't our children all get tetanus from stepping on rusty nails?
But maybe that was just the beginning of separating our garbage just like we do today, only nowadays it's all so much more complicated. And nowadays, despite ever more containers of ever more hues, there seem to be ever more items that you CAN'T put out for curb side pickup even once or twice a year.